Oh Lucy, you sound like me a few months back! I am so excited to tell you what has worked so well for me.
We use bumgenius diapers and LOVE them. It is quite a task to take on cloth diapering your child-especially if you're the one doing all the washing (instead of a service) but it's so worth it financially and environmentally!
We use a dry pail-which is suggested-which I just put a laundry bag inside a cheap step trash can. My friend has a nice fancy one that's more spendy, the Dekor laundry bin. I also use white washcloths to wipe my sons little booty because he has such sensitive skin and reactions to the chemicals in wipes. So after I change him, I put the washcloth inside the diaper and plop the diaper into the dry bin.
I do a wash every other day. My friend rinses her diapers off in the utility sink first because she thinks it's gross to put poop in the washer. I put mine straight into the washer on rinse because I'm not a big fan of touching poop. To each her own I guess. Oh, but I always wear rubber gloves either way. :)
After I put them through a rinse cycle I take them out and spray any stain spots with BAC-OUT by Biokleen. THIS is the best product I've found for getting stains and odors out and it's completely safe for the environment, animals AND ESPECIALLY your little baby. It pretty much kicks butt (pun intended.)
Then I pretty much follow the bumgenius directions on washing; one wash cold, one hot wash with extra rinse. I use perfume and dye free detergent as well-which means my diapers don't smell like a summer's breeze, but at least there aren't harsh chemicals on my sons boom-pa.
I put the inserts in the dryer on low and hang the shells and fleece liners (which I got locally in Portland and allow you to put diaper cream on if you need to) on a drying rack and put in our warm bedroom. On sunny days, which are few and far between in Oregon, I put the rack out in the sun and that works MAGIC! They seem way more white when I do that.
Seriously, BAC-OUT by Biokleen is awesome. I've gotten it from New Seasons and the "Natural" section at Fred Meyer. It's worth the cost!
L.
http://dardinelle.com/